Boxed deliveries of liquor, beer and wine resembled an obstacle course in the aisles of Goodrich’s Shop-Rite on Trowbridge Road across the street from the Michigan State University campus.

Scheffel, a co-owner of the store and a descendant of its founders, checked the accuracy of orders, directed the shelving of products, the storage of those that didn’t fit and assisted an early bird customer who fancied a $25 bottle of pinot noir.

Scheffel said his grandparents, Albert and Marie Goodrich, started the grocery in 1937 and for the next three decades, “Goodrich’s existed without any alcohol.” Everything changed in 1968 when East Lansing voted itself “wet,” he said.

Goodrich’s is still a grocery store, but it now offers 3,500 varieties of wine and was among Ingham County’s top 10 liquor retailers in 2011. And Scheffel, 65, said the store sells more wine than liquor and beer put together.

With a built-in, grocery-traffic advantage, supermarkets claim eight of the top 10 slots among tri-county liquor retailers. Three different Meijer Inc. stores are No. 1 in Ingham, Clinton and Eaton counties, according to Michigan Liquor Control Commission statistics. Party stores, Quality Dairy convenience stores, Kroger Co. and other supermarkets flesh out each county’s individual top 10 list.

Whether Goodrich’s or any other mid-Michigan supermarket could succeed in a competitive urban setting without selling alcoholic beverages is iffy. Scheffel’s customers are part of a thirsty Michigander demographic — pretty much everyone, statistically.

For 2011, the MLCC pegged the state’s per capita consumption at 19.62 gallons of beer, 1.65 gallons of liquor and 2.18 gallons of wine. But those figures apply alcohol consumption to everyone, including children.

Subtract the 28.3 percent of residents listed in the 2010 Census as younger than the legal drinking age, shift their pro rata consumption to the rest of the population and Michigan’s annual per capita averages swell to:

• 25.17 gallons, or 268 12-ounce bottles of beer.

• 2.18 gallons, or 11 bottles (750ML) of liquor.

• 2.8 gallons, or 14.13 bottles (750ML) of wine.

Those consumption rates mean big business for producers, distributors and retailers of alcoholic beverages in the three counties around the Capitol — though not as much as might be expected based on population and proximity to about 48,000 MSU students for much of the year.

According to preliminary annual figures provided last week by the MLCC, tri-county licensees bought $42.3 million in liquor from the commission for resale in 2011. That was 4.26 percent of the state’s $922.8 million in gross liquor sales to retailers even though Ingham, Eaton and Clinton counties account for 4.69 percent of the state’s population.

The MLCC’s role as Michigan’s exclusive wholesaler of liquor netted $167 million in revenue for the state last year, towering over the revenue from beer and wine tariffs.

'Control' state

All 50 states tax and regulate alcoholic beverages in some form, but Michigan is one of 18 “control” states where a government agency takes the playing field — as opposed to regulating from the sidelines.

Some states own and operate retail stores. In Michigan, the MLCC serves as a powerful middleman, marking up liquor manufacturers’ prices by 65 percent and setting the marked-up-and-taxed price as the minimum for consumers.

Retailers then receive a 17 percent discount, which is intended to provide their profit margin. They can add their own markups, but many do not because competitors advertise their liquor as selling at the state minimum.

Sales climbing

Gross sales of liquor have been climbing steadily and should top $1 billion for the first time when the state’s 2012 fiscal year totals are calculated after Sept. 30.

Since 2002, vodka has been Michigan’s liquor of choice with 34.9 percent of the MLCC’s sales, outpacing the aggregate sales of nine types of whiskey (21.3 percent) and rum (15 percent) again in fiscal year 2011.

Which retailers sell the most alcoholic beverages among 397 active licensees in Ingham County, 130 in Eaton County and 90 in Clinton County?

Oddly, the citizenry can know to the penny when measuring sales of liquor, but the pecking order for beer and wine retailers is elusive.

In the tri-county area, Meijer supermarkets in Okemos and East Lansing were in a league of their own last year, respectively purchasing $1.56 million and $1.49 million in whiskey, vodka, rum, gin and other distilled spirits from the MLCC.

Meijer stores in Delta Township, Lansing and DeWitt Township grabbed the next three liquor-sales slots, although their totals were about half those of the Okemos store.

A Quality Dairy store on East Grand River in East Lansing, Oades Big Ten Party Store in Lansing Township, Meijer stores in Mason and Charlotte and the Kroger on West Saginaw in Delta Township rounded out the tri-county Top 10.

As a private company in a highly competitive industry, Meijer, based in Grand Rapids, declined to release more site-specific details about alcoholic beverage sales than are available from the MLCC.

The state agency’s statistical glass remains more than half empty.

“We don’t track beer and wine per store,” said Andrea Miller, public information officer for the commission, which also doesn’t track on-premises beer and wine sales at restaurants or bars.

“In Michigan, we are among a minority of states where the tax (on beer and wine) is levied at the producer level,” said Mike Lashbrook, president of the Michigan Beer and Wine Wholesalers Association, which is based in Lansing.

Even wholesale distributors are likely to have only a partial picture of total store-by-store sales in their area. Industry and government officials generally agree that the quantities of beer and wine produced in or imported to Michigan ultimately reflect total retail sales.

Even playing field

State law requires beer and wine wholesalers to post their prices and make them available to all retailers “to create an even playing field … so the mom-and-pop independent retailers can compete with the large retailers,” said Lashbrook. “There is no volume discount.”

Across the supermarket industry, there is general agreement that beer generates the most revenue while wine is the most profitable.

Even though Michigan adults each consume an average of more than 11 cases of beer annually, state tariffs on beer are small change compared to liquor revenue.

The state tax on a 31-gallon barrel of beer produced, distributed or imported to Michigan is $6.30.

The Liquor Control Commission collected $39.4 million in beer production tax last year. That works out to 1.9 cents tax per 12-ounce bottle. Those who consume the adjusted per capita allotment of 268 bottles shoulder an effective annual tax burden of $5.09.

'A hidden tax'

“It’s a hidden tax,” said Lashbrook, explaining that brewers pass their production tax to wholesalers who pass it to retailers who pass it to customers. “Consumers don’t know they’re paying it.”

Michigan’s beer tariff ranks 26th among all states and hasn’t increased since 1962.

For the record, alcoholic-beverage taxes are borne entirely by alcoholic-beverage consumers, distributors and retailers. That revenue then helps moderate income tax rates and provide state services for everyone.

Wine production and importation is taxed at 13.5 cents per liter for wine that is 16 percent or less alcohol by volume and 20 cents per liter for wine of higher alcohol content. That tax generated $11.3 million in 2011.

Unlike retail purchasers of beer and liquor, Michigan wine drinkers don’t have to leave home. Since 2006, the MLCC has licensed 752 wineries to deliver directly to Michigan residents.